Apple's 2018 iPhone round-up could include much cheaper version of new handset

There will be three phones – including the new, cheaper one

Andrew Griffin
Friday 20 April 2018 11:39 BST
Comments
The new iPhone X is displayed during an Apple special event at the Steve Jobs Theatre on the Apple Park campus on September 12, 2017 in Cupertino, California
The new iPhone X is displayed during an Apple special event at the Steve Jobs Theatre on the Apple Park campus on September 12, 2017 in Cupertino, California (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Apple could be planning a much cheaper version of its next iPhone, according to report.

The 2018 iPhone round-up – which will probably have the usual release date of September – is expected to be made up of three different handsets. There will be a bigger and smaller version of an update to the iPhone X, reports have suggested, and also a cheaper model.

The two more expensive ones will have a 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch OLED screen. The smaller one will be the same size as the iPhone X and will serve as an update to that phone, and the bigger one will be something like an iPhone X Plus.

But along side those will come the cheaper model. That will have a 6.1-inch display, which will use old screen technology, and will be much cheaper than those other models.

In fact, it could be as cheap as $550, a new report from respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggests. That will be significantly cheaper than the $999 it costs for the entry model of the iPhone X – a price that is not likely to change for the next phone, and could be dwarfed by the price of the bigger model.

The cheaper version of the iPhone is likely to be aimed at the mid-level market that is currently occupied by a whole range of Android phones. That appeared to be a large part of the thinking behind the relatively small iPhone SE, which is by far the cheapest of Apple's current iPhone line-up and comes in a much smaller form factor too.

The new 6.1-inch phone could also come in single and dual SIM models, according to the same report, which was first published by Macrumors. Dual sim devices allow a phone to have two phone accounts once – using them either to have two phone numbers, to have international and local SIMs in the same phone, or to use one SIM for phone calls and another for data.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in